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drop by at hong wen mutton soup at bukit timah food centre on the way to meet a friend on 10.4.2015.

mutton soup

apparently the stall previously from beauty world centre has been around for decades.

closing time was 2.30pm & i was there nearer 3pm, anyway the owner served me the last bowl before shuttering the stall.

mutton soup

it should be good, unfortunately it was the worst mutton soup i had tried. will never come back again!

the soup was tasteless except for slight unnatural sweetness of herbs. usually this is balanced by the savoury & robust flavours of the mutton so the soup should be smooth, herbal & very tasty & intense, everything that this was not.

i asked for mutton & stomach. the mutton was soft. there were few for S$5, and basically tasteless even with the chilli.

met an old schoolmate for early lunch at old airport road hawker centre 11.30am today 2.12.2014. 🙂

it’s strange. old airport road is such a famous eating place, but i can only remember once i came here with another friend probably 5 years back & he introduced me to a beef noodle stall. it tasted nothing like the hong kong 牛腩面 stalls. i must have been here some other time but there was nothing in my recollections.

this friend comes here like once a month so he gamely walked me round the hawker centre, pointed to the famous hokkien mee stall (no queue yet), past the lor mee stall (already like 15 people in the queue), the fish head beehoon stall (about 6 in the queue).

we ended up at the hougang jing jia mutton soup stall. i went to get 2 bowls 牛杂 mixed rib, tripe, tendon (S$6 each) & he queue for a char kuay teow (S$4 加料 with added ingredients of prawns & squid).

but this hougang jing jia mutton soup was quite a let down actually. something was not quite right about the taste. soup was not as flavourful. i felt the meat was overcooked & too soft not the texture i like for mutton ribs and not as tasty, and chilli was simply too dilute.

we ought to be full by then. but my friend wanted to show me the 2 good wanton mee stalls which were just few stalls away from each other. 1 was closed, so we shared 1 bowl from cho kee. 4 wantons were good, soft, skin held together & tasty. char siew was good, and most importantly noodles was qq & taste was good.

i totally forgot my coffee meeting with another friend at commonwealth mrt koufu at 3.30pm on 2.12.2014. after i sent my friend out to bus stop & got back, only when i checked my phone which was charging that i realised i was very late. anyway i managed to get to koufu 45mins late & we had a good chat.

my wife was not back for dinner & this friend was free so we went together to try out joyful palace, a coffeeshop at clementi ave 3 (clementi central locality). i had seen the economic rice when passing & wanted to try this.

economic rice @ joyful palace clementi ave3

economic rice @ joyful palace clementi ave3

i had the steamed fish. it was probably the cheap vietnamese pangasius, a cheap catfish, the common supermarket sutchi fillet. i also had the belly pork & spinach.

the fish was very good. of course it was not fine dining restaurant standard, but it was equal or better even than what you get at zi char places. the belly pork preparation was not my preferred braise, a bit sweet sauce, but it was really good standard. very nicely done. spinach was quite fine.

& it was just S$4.50! and for that price & the quantity i had, this was excellent actually. 🙂

after cycling at east coast park, we went to serangoon gardens to use a groupon voucher at relish, but relish was closed for private function, so we wandered to serangoon gardens food centre on 19.11.2014. 🙂

i recalled some friends were talking on whatsapp about bakchormee here, the stall where the guy used to clank his wares (no longer since he moved here).

there were 3 bakchomee stalls, but i managed to confirm with my friends that it was seng kee (胜记) bakchormee. actually the many messages & feedback were quite negative, especially regards the S$9 fish maw soup, but since we had not tried before, we decided to go for bakchormee rather than other food. 🙂

Seng Kee (胜记) Bakchormee @ Serangoon Garden Food Centre

soup, Seng Kee (胜记) Bakchormee

Seng Kee (胜记) Bakchormee @ Serangoon Garden Food Centre

there was no queue at 12pm on a wednesday & i was bale to pick up my 2 bowls of S$4 bakchormee immediately (i was not going to take the S$9 fish maw soup after those feedback). after me though there was a queue of about 4 to 5, and the only one of the 3 stalls to have a queue.

that should have been promising, however the results were very disappointing. i would say the bakchormee was totally mediocre, can probably get better from any coffeeshop or hawker centre.

for us, the main failure was the chilli. i went to ask for more chilli. chilli looked potent but it had no taste no kick. my wife’s mee kia (thin noodles) was still qq, my meepok was becoming soggy.

i had ice kachang & my wife took the soursop jelly. ice kachang was not to my taste (i like it sweet with more syrup & evaporated milk like at adam road food centre). the soup sop was good but the jelly was not the soft type.

Seng Kee (胜记) Bakchormee @ Serangoon Gardens Food Centre

Serangoon Gardens Food Centre

my friends told me on whatsapp later that the duck rice & 猪杂汤 is good here. will try them next time. 🙂

it was about 1145am & i had to drive 1 round the parking lot but was lucky enough to chance on a taxi exiting a lot. 🙂

i was just as lucky as the queue was very short, just 3 persons ahead of me. my lucky day! 🙂

Hao Man Yee Xiaolongbao (好满意小笼包)

Hao Man Yee Xiaolongbao (好满意小笼包)

my friend took the chilli beef noodles (红油牛肉面) from another stall 好满意小笼包. he was exclaiming that the beef was so very tender, the best he had taken from a hawker stall!

we decided to order a S$4 xiaolongbao (小笼包). 6 dumplings, <1/2 the price of restaurants & it was good, very much restaurant standard, comparable even with crystal jade lamian xiaolongbao. i did not try the spicy dumpling (红油抄手), but i will go back & try soon. 🙂

had simple zi char dinner with wife & daughter last evening at forture restaurant at old holland road on 25.10.2014. 🙂

went there about 6.50pm. luckily i found a parking lot in front of restaurant. the place was 90% filled with many tables of western expat families.

it was very popular eating place. for me that’s a good thing really, that expats, western & others, were enjoying nice local zi char food. there would always be concern if some dishes would be adulterated, but it didn’t really affect the dishes we ordered much (maybe the cuttlefish kang kong sauce & the satay sauce).

we like the hor fun here & occasionally “tapao” (did a take-out). usually wok hae (pan flavours) very good. this time it was ok average.

thai fish head curry (S$25)

cuttlefish with kang kong (S$10)

cuttlefish with kang kong (S$10)

we ordered the “jill her eng chai”- cuttlefish with kang kong (S$10). the kang kong was very good. the cuttlefish was good, came with an unusual sweet sauce (looked & tasted just like yong tau fu very red colour sweet sauce). it was not the usual sambal. i didn’t mind it actually but i guessed the usual sambal should be better.

beef & chicken satay

beef & chicken satay

the satay were very good, very tasty & not dry or tough. the sauce was watery & a bit sweeter than most satay sauce (to cater for expat diners maybe?) but still nice. I thought this was a very good satay if only they served a usual better sauce.

the dinner for 3pax was S$45 exclude drinks. it was not cheap but not expensive also, just the going price i guess.

went to immigration checkpoint authority (ICA) to take passport size photo today.

i applied online for passport extension but my scanned photo for e-submission was rejected. anyway it’s about time i took some current day photos. heard from b-i-l that the studios outside now charged S$22 for 8 (or maybe 12) photos, and better off for me just to go to ICA & pay S$5.50 for 4 photos. that’s what i did, and no hassle.

we had a small S$8 mixed mutton soup 羊杂汤 PLUS a S$7 large mutton rib soup.

the verdict?

it seemed to me that there was no a great deal of difference between the 2 stalls at whampoa – this one & yuji (宇记). the mutton balls (not my favourite) seemed better than yuji, the ribs & tendon were good, & not much of tripe, same as yuji. quantity wise, S$8 here & S$7 at yuji also not much difference.

the mutton rib soup had a lot more mutton (of course). the soup was good both here & at yuji. 🙂

for me, overall chai chuan tou 柴船头 offered much better satisfaction, a lot more shiok! the tripes were the large pieces type & quantity wise i think more for a S$6 (large) serving, and the mutton ribs were tastier. the soup was very tasty but maybe slightly less sweet herbal taste & more robust mutton taste? not sure…reason to go back to chai chuan tou 柴船头 again. haha! 🙂

now, got high tech, so we have a light buzzle when noodles were ready. not bad!

6th ave jln tua kong meepok tar

to me, there are 2 things special about this style of meepok tar. 1 is the very spicy chilli, really shiok! the other is the sliced pork & prawn. here everything is done quite perfectly – noodle was qq, chilli potent, fish balls bouncy & lots of minced pork (in the very tasty soup too) & also a few pieces of lar pok (crispy lard)…..just compared that with the mediocre amigo bakchormee we had at changi village food centre,

there were 4 nasi lemak stalls. i decided not to queue at “mizzy corner” the one with longest queue. but my short queue (i was the 4th in the queue) at malay stall sri sujana turned out quite long as 2 before were buying 4packets & 5packets. the man was very naggy at every customer. service was poor & not cheerful. 😦

that would be ok if food was ok, but it was not! rice was poor and did not have the fragrant coconut flavours. & sambal chilli the most important ingredient was outright bad & odd tasting. it was salty & like having tau jeoh??? not sure can call it sambal?? to me rice & chilli were like the backbone of good nasi lemak, & both failed completely. 😦

i saw then there were 2 stalls with mutton soup so decided to try out yu ji (宇记) chinese herbal mutton soup (羊肉汤) on 19.9.2014.

yu ji (宇记) chinese herbal mutton soup (羊肉汤)

i ordered the 4 in 1 mixed soup which had mutton balls, mutton ribs, tripes & tendons, small portion for S$7.

the soup was good. the portions were ok overall. mutton balls not good. there were hardly any tripe, very tiny pieces & not many. the mutton ribs were ok. there was 2 pieces of mutton leg so quite a bit of tendons.

comparing with the very shiok S$6 mutton soup at Chai Chuan Tou 柴船头羊肉汤 at blk115 bukit merah view, i have to say that 柴船头羊肉汤 is still better. it had a lot more mutton ribs & they were more tender & tastier, and there were a lot of nice tripe pieces. but it was a 2 in 1 which had only mutton ribs & tripes, so quantity wise maybe quite comparable & tendons are more expensive & yu ji’s tendons were very nice & generous portions. 🙂

anyway this is definitely a stall i would come if i come to whampoa market.

went with sis & b-i-l to watch chinese operatic performance at nkf centre on 6.9.2014.

we went earlier at 6pm to have dinner at whampoa hawker centre. we all love hawker food! 🙂

幸福潮州小食

there was the usual long queue for hoover rojak. the liang zhao ji 梁照记 duck rice stall was closed.

the next stall, 幸福潮州小食, seems to be popular with teochew pig trotter jelly (猪脚冻) & shark jelly (鲨鱼冻). i wanted more to eat the pig trotters and looking at the trotter jelly it didn’t look that great, so i ordered just the pig trotters & fish maw soup. think i will go back one day to try both the pig trotter jelly (猪脚冻) & shark jelly (鲨鱼冻).

my sis came here to take her favourite fish soup at hoover fish porridge. she ordered 1 bowl of sliced fish soup & 1 bowl of fish head soup, S$12 including 2 bowls of rice. the sliced fish soup was sweeter & ok amount of fish. i usually like fish head but the quantity was quite small & not so much meat vs bones.

for me, i didn’t think much of this fish soup. it was ok but just like any fish soup. also fish soup not my favourite dish.

dinner for 3pax came to S$21.50, so about S$7pax, quite ok.

after dinner i saw 2 chinese herbal mutton soup stalls. i would want to try them next time.

this mutton soup stall at blk115 bukit merah view is my favourite chinese mutton soup place, which is NOT saying much as i don’t know many mutton soup stalls & i had not ate here for quite many years (the ones i had taken more recently were the excellent kambing soup at bahrakath @ adam road hawker centre).

in fact, i can only remember 1 other very good mutton soup stall, which is the one at amoy street food centre. i think i also tried one along smith street many years back but no impression really. and talking about it now i recall another mutton soup stall at berseh food centre where i took the fu he turtle soup recently, but also not much recollections of the taste.

anyhow today, 2 friends suggested to have 羊肉汤 at bukit merah view. but some of us already planned to go tan ser seng at geylang 21 to have turtle soup. luckily 1 friend called TSS & found out that thursday is their rest day, so 2 of us decided to join the mutton soup gang instead, making up 4pax. 🙂

chai chuan tou chinese mutton soup 柴船头羊肉汤

chai chuan tou chinese mutton soup 柴船头羊肉汤

chinese mutton soup 羊肉汤

chinese mutton soup 羊肉汤

chinese mutton soup 羊肉汤

chinese mutton soup 羊肉汤

chai chuan tou chinese mutton soup 柴船头羊肉汤

i was at the carpark at 1120am, the LED signboard said FULL alamak! 😦

fortunately turnover was fast & i got my parking lot almost immediately. the 2 friends who were earlier were already in the queue (about 4th in a 10+ person queue which grew), smart guys. we ordered 3 bowls of meat + tendon and for me, 1 bowl meat + tendon + stomach. i did not take rice.

wa….it was really shiok! didn’t miss 羊肉汤 until then as i relished the really tasty broth & the excellent meat, stomach, tendons with the chilli. i must have this again! 🙂

the queue continued to be 10+pax, and my friend said if you came after 1.30pm, likely everything was sold out, and no more liao!

anyhow, few of us are going to tan ser seng turtle soup next wednesday, so maybe i will come back to this later in sep.

went to a friend’s place to watch the germany – argentina world cup finals at 3am 14.7.2014. we arranged to meet at 10.30pm for supper then back to friend’s place to watch a movie. that would bring us nicely to 3am to watch the WC finals. 🙂

i supported argentina though it was an uphill task. both sides had good chances, however argentina lacked good finishers. messi was heavily marked & mostly in midfield with several lightning dashes down the right flanks but there was no centre forwards to receive his crosses & pullbacks – angela di maria was injured, aquero was not game fit & missing his speed & touches, gondola higuain missed a sitter & badly fluffed a superb lavazzi’s cross with an offside goal! & manual neuer the german goalkeeper smothered palacio’s once chance. anyway, in the end i guess the best team won! 🙂

before the WC finals we watched zero dark thirty, a multiple award winning film (oscar, bafta, golden globe etc) about the hit on osama bin laden. it was a good movie but for me it was not among the best & it was also hard to follow (need to read up first to understand the movie).

for supper, we had the famous xingji soupy bakchormee, see video here.

this time we tried the supposedly famours pig trotters at han jia bakuteh & pork leg. i wanted bakchormee so i skipped the rice & just had the trotters. according to my friend, this stall was quite good except that it was less good in the evening as the trotters got to be too soft.

my 2 other friends ordered also taupok, chai buay + peanuts & kidney, liver soup. all were ok except the pig trotters. partly because we ordered the lean trotters, but this was way below the standard of any good trotters stall like ng ah sio bakuteh, song fa bakuteh etc.

after dinner we enjoyed the top drawer sound system & music, this time jason mraz, & the wimbledon semis & world cup quarterfinals between france & germany. we left about 2am, skipping the brazil-columbia game. 🙂

did some errands at hollandv. walking through the food centre & thought the bakchormee stall looked different. i had a good bakchormee at a commonwealth crescent fai zai eatery bakchormee here on 24.9.2013. now the stall is called ming fa (明发). i guess ming fa (明发) has acquired & franchised the stall. it used to be a middle-aged man hawking, now there were 2 women.

must say this was really quite poor. the meepok noodles were slightly soggy not enough qq (al dente), ingredients were less. taste was just passable but not great. the previous stall commonwealth crescent fai zai eatery bakchormee was a lot better than this, though the ming fa (明发) at upper thomson was far better. but this ming fa (明发) at hollandv is quite poor indeed!

went with wife & daughter to ming fa at upper thomson for bakchormee this afternoon on 4.5.2014. must say it as immensely fulfilling. haha. 🙂 such simple food & great satisfaction! guess i was also missing the jalan tea kong meepok tar at 6th avenue. having withdrawals. haha. 🙂

ming fa bakchormee

the place was very well patronised at 3pm on a sunday afternoon. we could hardly find a table for 3.

the bakchormee was really good, the overall flavours & chilli, the qq noodles, minced pork, pork ball & sliced pork & liver. as good as the tai wah i remember (not been to tai wah for the longest time).

noodles was S$4 and ming fa now has expanded from a traditional stall in chinatown to 7 outlets with a manufacturing arm selling laksa and curry chicken etc. 🙂 saw on their website that there is an outlet at hollandv hawker centre etc. somehow did not notice. only tried the fei zai bakchormee stall, which was not too bad. will look out next time i am there. 🙂

my weekly jogging partner & i thought of starting some activities among friends who meet often for makan. i did a really fun HK eat & hike trip in may2013 with 3 other friends. but we can do some of these fun things in singapore too that cost next to nothing.

another friend was clearing leave & suggested we do a short walk along the green corridor from king albert park to rail mall & back. we parked our cars at KAP on 16.1.2014 & started the walk from the rail bridge from bukit timah road side. this is a period of cooler weather & we started the walk about 7.30am. it was really pleasant walk. 🙂

the green corridor (rifle range)

bamboo tree

the friend who initiated this walk is far more educated in flora & fauna than the 2 of us. 🙂 i couldn’t recognise many trees but we spotted this nicely fanned-out bamboo behind some newer terrace houses along rifle range road.

bukit timah radio tower

& in the distance was the bukit timah radio tower.

it was a weekday (thurs). there were only few joggers & people walking dogs.

i managed to zoom up 20m & captured this flower on a wildly shaking hand (due to the zoom). 🙂